


lines incorporated

by MALTHAZARD



Category: Lines (Webcomic)
Genre: Multi, ill tag things when they show up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-05-18 16:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14856012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MALTHAZARD/pseuds/MALTHAZARD
Summary: A group of teens with a van get invited to stay at a big mansion in the middle of nowhere. Of course there's a mystery. At least they don't have a dog, right?





	1. chaper 1 I guess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this isn't for lime this is for ME I deserve a lines scooby-doo au

“There! Pull in there!” 

Elijah jumped, startled. “What? Wh- I’m not driving up to some stranger’s house!”

“It’s a mansion. Big mansions in the middle of nowhere always let strangers stay there for free. Well-known fact.” Kyle said matter-of-factly.

“Abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere are always full of  **_axe murderers_ ** . Also well-known fact.” Valerie retorted, elbowing him.

“It’s lit up, so it’s okay. Not  **_abandon_ ** -”

“Oh my god!” Dennis shouted and threw the steering wheel sideways, sending the van careening into the driveway and making everyone in it shout. “It’s a BnB or it’s a death cult, either way, you two will have to shut up for a while!”

“Do you have any  **_idea_ ** how  **_dangerous_ ** that was?” Elijah groaned, knowing as soon as he said it that is was futile. He sighed. “Come on, ring the bell with me. I can’t leave you here with those two, you might actually succeed in killing them this time.”

“Don’t think I haven’t been trying.” Dennis snarled towards Kyle and Valerie in the back, but he unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the van all the same. 

Elijah rolled his eyes at Dennis’s theatrics as he made his way up the landing and rang the doorbell. “It’s pretty amazing how Seth managed to sleep through all this.” He said offhandedly. After a minute of waiting, a voice proclaimed she was ‘coming!’ and a few seconds later, the door opened to reveal an attractive teenage girl about their age, dressed in girly pyjamas, with sleep-mussed two-tone hair and a double splash of freckles over her face. “On second thought, maybe that’s a good thing.” Elijah muttered.

Upon seeing them properly, the girl seemed a bit embarrassed about her disheveled appearance, but gave them a big smile anyway. “Hi! I’m Fahra, and this is my house, obviously. Can I help you?”

“Uh, yeah,” Elijah said, “We’ve been driving all day, and haven’t found anywhere to stay. Do you think you could point us towards the nearest hotel?”

“Oh! I’m sorry, but there’s nowhere like that around here for a long time. But you can stay here for the night if you want to? As you can see, we have a lot of rooms.” Fahra said, apparently completely fine with offering her home to a vanfull of strangers. 

“That’s really nice of you, but we don’t want to impose-”

“I insist! You’d be driving until this time tomorrow, otherwise.” 

“We really shouldn’t-”

“Thank you so much! Where do you want us to move the van?” Dennis cut in, silencing Elijah’s protests. 

Fahra gave him another winning smile. If she kept at it, they’d be out of awards before the day was out. “It’s fine as-is! If you go get your friends, I can take you to your rooms.” 

Dennis and Elijah excused themselves to retrieve Kyle, Valerie, and Seth. Halfway down the drive, Elijah grabbed his male associate’s elbow. “Dennis, what the hell? We can’t stay at some random chick’s house!” He half-whispered.

Rolling his eyes, Dennis brushed Elijah’s hand off. “You really think  **_she’s_ ** an axe murderer? You could break her in half.” He laughed. At the van, Dennis grabbed the back doors and threw them open. “Get up! We’re sleeping here for the night.”

“Woah, really?”

“Awesome!” Kyle yelled and jumped out, pulling Valerie behind him.

Seth stirred where he had been napping in the side of the van, finally having been woken up by Kyle bouncing the car. “Hey… Where are we?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Our new house. Get out.” 

“Wha?”

“Go!” Dennis exclaimed, shoving Seth towards the porch. He seemed hesitant at first, but perked up immediately when Fahra grinned and waved him over. Dennis sighed and shook his head, slamming the van doors closed. Elijah locked up, and they rejoined the rest of their party on the landing. 

Taking up a position next to her, Elijah gestured at their host. “This is Fahra. She’s letting us stay here tonight.” He announced. 

“Everybody say ‘thanks, Fahra.’” Dennis piped up, sounding like a schoolteacher.

“Thanks, Fahra.” The other three chorused, an embarrassed blush spreading over Seth’s face.

Fahra giggled and waved them all inside. “It’s really no problem. In fact, you guys are doing  **_me_ ** a favour! I don’t really see anyone my age over the summer, so this will be fun! Like a sleepover,” she said cheerfully, although for the first time her voice contained something else, a strange hint of relief. “Now come on! We should all be asleep by now!” 

Their host herded them up the stairs, and went around assigning everybody rooms and telling them where the other important places in the house were. She also explained to them tha while she didn’t have any parents around, she lived here with her aunt and, until recently, her uncle. Her aunt was a bit nervy, apparently, but she mostly stayed downstairs and they could probably just avoid her. Kyle and Valerie ooh’ed and aah’ed throughout their little tour, but Seth put aside being impressed by their fancy surroundings in favour of gazing dreamily at their fancy benefactor.

“Since you’re all settled in, I’m gonna go get some sleep. You should too, but feel free to make yourselves at home!” Fashra said, and promptly disappeared down one of the impossibly long and dark corridors that were apparently a prerequisite for being a mansion. 

The remaining group said their goodnights and sequestered themselves in their quarters, excited to spend a few hours away from each other after being stuck in a van together for weeks. They all fell asleep quickly, even Seth. All except Kyle, who had started getting a weird vibe when he went into his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to replace "his male associate" but I forgot and now it's going to stay there


	2. c2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> will every chapter start with kyle yelling? yes

“Dennis! Dennis! _**Elijaaaaahhhhh**_ -”

Elijah burst out of his room, expecting either a burglar or a 911 call. “Kyle! What’s going on?”

“It better be really, really important for you to be screaming about it in the middle of the night.” Dennis added from his doorway, clearly not as convinced at the urgency of the situation.

Wringing his hands nervously, Kyle stood in the middle of the hallway, fighting a faint urge to run to Elijah and clutch his  apron pyjama pants. “In my room! There’s a-”

_A beast, taller than a man and with claws that would put an eagle to shame. It stood by the center window, the faint backlight from the moon and the way Kyle’s eyes could only slowly_ _adjust to the darkness making it seem like some bad sci-fi teleporter effect had the creature in its grasp. It extended a talon towards Kyle, frozen in place and desperately trying to convince himself he was asleep. “Leave.” it snarled, and the two windows on the side of it burst in dramatically, giving Kyle the scare he needed to scramble out of his room, yelling his head off._

“A big scary thing! A monster!” He finished, somewhat lamely but still obviously agitated.

Dennis sighed heavily and shook his head. “A ‘big scary thing’? Did it look like, oh I don’t know, subconscious anxieties? Seriously, dude. Do you freak out this bad  **_every_ ** time you have a nightmare?”

“It wasn’t- it was real! And it was in my  **_room_ ** !” Kyle protested.

“Get another room.  **_Quietly_ ** .” Dennis said, waving a hand down the hallway as he receded into his room and shut the door.

With Dennis out of the picture, Kyle turned to Elijah, who had been standing to the side sleepily half-listening and trying to figure out when to leave. “Elijaahhh….”

 

“What? Oh, I have… a couch in my room? You can sleep on that, I guess.” He muttered, very ready to not be in a random hallway in the middle of the night after a full day of driving. Without waiting for a reply, he turned and climbed back into his bed. Kyle followed, though he neglected to shut the door this time, and lay down on the aforementioned couch. 

 

“Good night, Elijah!” Kyle said, much more cheerful now that danger was both far away and probably not real anyway.

 

“Shut up.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't intending to go scary but my brain insisted on flashbacks and I had to justify them somehow  
> also if you're thinking I could have just added this to the end of 1 instead of posting a 400word chapter: so am I


	3. c3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good morning to seth and only seth

The following morning, Fahra came and woke everybody up, leading them to a dining room right out of a period drama. The obviously antique table was crowded with way too much breakfast for the seven set places worth of people it was intended for; plates piled with french toast, waffles, sausages and other assorted morning foods were just barely balanced well enough to avoid knocking over the jugs of cream, coffee, and syrup that stood between them and the (much smaller) bowls of fruits like lighthouses on a turbulent sea. A young girl stood to the side, watching somewhat nervously as Fahra ushered everyone into their seats. Just when Fahra tried to sit down herself, the girl grabbed her arm, although she immediately released it in shock. 

“M-miss Alcantara, is this really a good idea? You haven’t even told the mistress that these people are here, much less that they’re going to be eating at her table!” She hissed, thrown off at first by her own breach of protocol. The girl either didn’t hear or didn’t care about Dennis stage whispering ‘these people’ in a mocking tone behind her, but Fahra did both. 

Fahra gestured at her guests not to worry, and rolled her eyes at the distressed servant. “It’ll be fine, Clara, these guys are cool! Aunt Seria won’t mind. Now, Jess will probably need help in the kitchen cleaning up.” She finished, giving Clara an out to escape the matronly wrath she obviously expected. “Sorry about that, guys. Anyway, my aunt will be coming soon, so we can just start without her. Dig in!” Fahra said, taking her own advice and shoveling a heap of french toast onto her plate. 

Those who had been awaked last night ate, for the most part, quietly, each wondering whether they could ever get a good night’s sleep and why it was fair their companions all seemed more rested than they were. Seth and Valerie, however, were very awake, eventually managing to spur the whole table into mouths-full, forks-waving small talk. Fahra didn’t seem very concerned by her aunt seemingly forgoing breakfast, her sleeping well into the day apparently being a regular occurence. 

Kyle ended up mentioning his ‘scary thing’ after Dennis complained about being woken up, which brought about a whole new wave of daytime-renewed ribbing. Fahra went quiet as soon as Kyle recounted his night terror, and Seth gave her a look of concern.

“What’s up?”

“It’s just…” Fahra sighed and looked away. “I was hoping this would have stopped.” At the varying looks of confusion and suspicion, she continued, “The monster. Clara calls it the Dark Lilith, although I think that’s just something she took from one of her books. It’s been showing up here in the house for the last few weeks, breaking stuff, scaring people. And now you guys are gonna  **_leave_ ** , and we’re gonna be all  **_alone_ ** in my  **_haunted house_ ** -” 

The sight of a frown on a born-to-be-sunny face like Fahra’s was unnatural, and it made Seth want to throw on one of the suits of armour a house like this was bound to have and run through the halls yelling for the monster to come out and fight. He settled for the next best thing. 

“We won’t leave!” Seth burst out. “In fact, if you don’t mind us staying, we’re kinda… mystery solvers! We can totally unhaunt your house!” This mystery solvers thing was news to everyone else, but they were willing to go with it to stay in a huge mansion with breakfasts that could feed an army for free. 

Fahra gasped. “Really? That’s amazing! Yes, please, thank you!” She gushed, springing from her chair to grab an already blushing Seth in a spontaneous hug.

“Watch out, he’s gonna blow.” Dennis muttered, ignoring the drama in favour of finishing his breakfast. He needed his energy, after all. As soon as Fahra was out of the room, he was going to throttle Seth. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another short chapter but I like the cutoff


	4. c4 (ha ha)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think ao3 did something very bad to the formatting but I'll reupload it later for now I just want to have it posted

Seth picked his chair up from where it had been knocked over and rubbed his sore neck. “Explain to me again why I’m getting attacked for scoring us a free mansion vacation?” He said, used enough to Dennis to be petulant about almost dying. He was eternally grateful Fahra had just gone to the bathroom and narrowly missed him getting thrashed by a guy who was half as heavy without the jewelry.

“Be- cause , moron,” Dennis started, pointedly  not getting out of his chair at Elijah, who had just put him back in it a minute ago, “I’m not exactly excited to get  sued when this rich chick realises we’re as good at ‘mystery solving’ as Kyle is at tying his shoes. The second she finds out we’re using her for pancakes, we’re gonna get knocked into bankruptcy right on our ass.”

“Please.” Valerie said, tagging in for Seth, “It’s probably just some weirdo neighbour pulling a stupid prank. All we have to do is catch ‘em, have Elijah crack his knuckles, and then tell the maid what we want for dinner.” 

“Yeah, because something is actually going to be  easy for us for once.”

“Don’t tell me you  believe in this monster stuff,” Valerie scoffed.

“No, it’s totally real!” Kyle piped up. “It’s so real I almost  died . If you don’t believe me, just come see what it did to my room!” Suddenly charged with self-importance, he leapt from his chair and rushed into the hall without bothering to check if his entourage had actually formed yet. He rounded the corner as the rest of the party was getting up from their seats and almost ran smack into Fahra. The oops-excuse me-no my fault-sorry ritual from it gave everyone a minute to catch up, and soon the travellers plus host were standing in Kyle's ex-bedroom while he triumphantly gestured at them with a shard of glass. “See? See?” He crowed.

“Yeah, sure. Everybody sees. Now can you put the knife down?” Dennis said, never a fan of 'Kyle with something dangerous’. 

“Yes, please! And if everyone could keep away from the broken glass…” Fahra added as Kyle threw his piece onto the floor. 

“Well, okay. Let's… investigate this.” Elijah said. “Everybody look for clues or something.”

Everybody scattered to look for clues or something. Dennis, who was decidedly not everybody, sat down on the bed and pulled out his phone, effectively becoming furniture for the rest of the investigation. The room proceeded to be torn apart, but there had been little there in the first place and it didn't seem the apparition had bothered to bring anything. At least, at first, but there, masquerading as a chunk of glass, was a crystal earring. Elijah managed to pick it out from the remains of the window, and showed it to Fahra. 

“One of yours?"

Fahra took it from him and turned it over in her hand. “I… no. I've never seen one like this.” The construction of the item was strange, almost as if the metal had fused with the explosively shaped crystal. Holding it felt like frozen energy, and she could have sworn it was vibrating in her fingers. “This is… weird. I guess that means it's a clue!” She immediately perked up, smiling brightly at this massive step forward for mystery solving.

Everyone was incredibly pleased with the discovery of a real, honest-to-goodness clue. The mystery solving had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for another short chapter orz but now that things have officially started I'll try to write faster ahaha
> 
> one of my radcliffe headcanons is that they lowkey care about things like "Money" and "the Law" because of their lawyer parents even though they are both rebel types


	5. c5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> justify the parts that don't make sense by saying "ghosts" to yourself every time you question something

Dennis managed to take up the whole of the sofa in Elijah’s room despite Elijah sitting on it by simply sitting on Elijah and stretching himself over the rest of the cushions. One of Elijah’s arms had been co-opted as a headrest and the other as a phone stand, and all of his limbs were starting to go numb. He knew he could probably just stand up whenever, but Dennis would  **_not_ ** be okay with getting dumped on the floor like a shopping bag, and so Elijah was furniture. They both sat using their phones in silence until Dennis smacked his head into Elijah’s chest, the laziest possible version of a punch from his position. 

“Quit doing that.”

“Doing what? I only have one hand and that’s just barely.”

“So there’s a localized couch-sized earthquake happening on the second floor?”

“...What?” He asks, and then he feels it, the faint sensation finally picking up enough to creep through his sleeping nerves. A rocking, like someone kept running into the back of the sofa. “That’s seriously not me. I don’t know  **_what_ ** it is.”

Talking about it seemed to make it more real, and just as Dennis locked his phone to get up, Elijah’s head suddenly snapped forward, followed by the sofa itself, trapping him under a now out-cold boyfriend and a piece of furniture that should **_not_** be such an efficient trap, or this heavy. There was only one thing for it. He breathed deeply and-

 

…

 

“How did you… even call me?” Seth grunted, struggling to lift something twice as heavy as he was. 

“Siri.” Dennis said, trying to wiggle out armless without looking stupid, which was just as hard as it sounds. He eventually succeeded, and Seth dropped the couch immediately, making a very worrying sound come from the direction of Elijah. “Just leave it. He can get himself out.”

Seth did not look satisfied with ‘just leaving it’, but was in no position to argue. He glanced nervously at Elijah, then looked back at Dennis. “So what happened? You two lovebirds-”

Dennis shot him a withering glance. “First, let me remind you to think before you speak. Second, I have no idea. It just started shaking and then all of a sudden I has to call  **_you_ ** for help.” His tone made it excruciatingly clear that he was starting to prefer being trapped on the floor. 

“OMG, like poltergeist activity? It was totally the ghost, dude!” 

“Seth.” He almost put his hand on Seth’s shoulder, but thought better of it. “The most supernatural possibility here is that Elijah got restless leg and his freakish strength broke some furniture. There’s no  **_ghost_ ** . I know you only have a little common sense, but  **_please_ ** try using it.” Dennis said, folding his arms at the exact moment the door slammed shut. 


	6. b1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (break 1) this is kind of an intermission and not really a real chapter. Also my writing style changed in this one for absolutely no reason so just bear with me here

Dennis has had a long, long day. Let’s give him a rest for the moment, and take a break to learn a little about our hosts. 

The Alcantara legacy was a long and little-known one, the family nebulously existing in some semi-mountain region for the last few hundred years, indistinctly drifting down every so often to do something important that needed an ancient noble clan to do it. The only known representation of an Alcantara was a crumbling statue in the back gardens, a now-unidentifiable woman whose head had been blown off by a drunk ancestor with a shotgun who mistook it for an intruder. Catalpa Alcantara and his new wife Amaia were not at all happy with this state of affairs and packed up out of the family manor as soon as they were wed, leaving it entirely to the family heir, Catalpa’s brother Josiah. While the happy couple were off raising a new type of family who met people and had friends, Josiah was finally initialising his own love life. He met a woman from higher on the mountain named Seria and intended to marry her. She was beautiful, much younger, and utterly charming. The perfect picture of a gold digger- which is exactly what Catalpa said when he heard the news. Seria suggested they not marry to save their reputations, but Josiah figured having a beautiful wife would be worth her probably stealing all his money when he died. 

So strongly did the other branch object they ended up even dying together, leaving their child with the firey rubber glory only their modern sanctuary could have granted. The accident left their daughter, young Fahrenheit, reasonably lost, but she was not destroyed by the loss of distant vigilance, adapting quickly to her new life with her aunt and uncle. In a sense, it was the best thing for her, as Josiah and Seria were adoring parents, understanding the difficulty of being a suffering teenager trapped on a mountain. Fahra’s bubbly personality quickly surged back to full force, and the Alcantara manor was filled with more energy than it had seen in decades.

This made it especially devastating when Josiah was killed. It was known at once who had done it, as there was but one family enemy of the Alcantaras, and but one surviving member, and he was swiftly executed. He had done his work, though. The head had been erased from the head as neatly as the statue, and the family was effectively dead. The widow was devastated, now a recluse, and the heir was a child. Soon after the funeral, visitors slowed to a trickle, then dried up completely. The manor was like a rotting tree, the roads becoming silent, almost all of the staff that peopled it being released. Fahra had slowly been urging her aunt back towards public life, but it was going to be a long journey. Then their visitors arrived. 

There’s a bit more to this family history, but those in the manor right now are a bit more demanding of your attention. 


End file.
